MCSO solves North Valley cold case homicide from 1988

02/21/18

PEORIA – On February 2, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office cold case homicide detectives arrested, Donald Lee Scott, for the murder of Anne Levee. He was booked into the Maricopa County Jail on one count of first degree murder and one count of sexual assault.
On December 10, 1988, the body of an unidentified female was located in the area of 99th Avenue and the Carefree Highway. Scott lived in the area and contacted MCSO to report a body he had discovered, when homicide detectives arrived on the scene they questioned Scott, but released him as a suspect.
The unidentified victim was transported to the medical examiner’s office where an autopsy was conducted, and it was determined that the victim had been shot multiple times. Detectives were only able to identify the victim through fingerprints.
The examiner was able to recover biological evidence for the victim, which was given to MCSO detectives who sent the evidence to the Arizona Department of Public Safety Crime Lab to be processed. At the time not much could be done with the evidence other than determining the blood type.
Detectives contacted and interviewed all the people Levee associated with, but they were unable to identify a suspect during the investigation.
In 2003, the case was re-examined by MCSO detectives and the biological evidence was re-submitted to AZDPS Crime Lab at which point a DNA profile was obtained and entered into CODIS (the combined DNA index system). CODIS was searched but no matches were discovered.
Then in 2014, Scott was convicted of aggravated harassment and a DNA sample was taken from him and entered the CODIS due to his conviction. In December 2016, the AZDPS identified a CODIS match with Scott from the biological evidence recovered in 1988 from the victim’s body, says MCSO.
MCSO detectives worked closely with the cold case unit at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and the Maricopa County Probation Department in tracking Scott, and on February 2, detectives were finally able to contact and arrest Scott for the 1988 cold case homicide.